Even Superheroes have an ugly side… or so our ‘hero-ology’ is challenged to believe in the third film of the Spider-Man trilogy.

In this film we see all the ugliness of our human nature attached to one of our favorite superheroes in the form of an alien symbiote.

Arrogance. Pride. Bitterness. Unforgiveness. Rage. Revenge.

The black mass of evil emotions envelops Peter Parker influencing his behavior for the worse.

Spider-Man is hijacked by evil.

He finds himself alienated, hurting the people he loves most, and misusing his superhero strengths for vengeance and self-vindication. And thus Spider-Man meets his darkest and most powerful villain yet… himself.

At one point in the film Peter Parker goes into a fit of rage and later finds himself looking in the mirror at his newfound dark side and in a twisted manner, likes the narcissistic image he now portrays.

That’s what the symbiote of sin will do to a person.

We all have the decadent tendency to turn into something very ugly apart from God’s grace. That’s why we must walk in that grace everyday. Thankfully, Spider-Man found his redemption, ironically, under the cross of a church. Here, he realizes he has been complicit in a series of events that have hurt himself and so many others. He deals with the villain by facing it head-on – and the villain is conquered.

We must deal with our inner nature. The Bible calls this “crucifying the flesh”, which simply means we are putting ourselves under the influence and power of Christ to redeem us from our dark side. It’s something we must do every day in our lives, not just as a symbol of joining a church or getting baptized. We must train ourselves to deal with deadly and dangerous emotions. If not, we become what Aunt May describes as an “ugly poison”, not only hurting ourselves but everyone around us.